By BosNewsLife Asia Service

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Christian women face difficulties in Pakistan amid reports of kidnappings.

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (BosNewsLife)– A Muslim man in Pakistan kidnapped, raped and forced a 13-year-old girl to convert to Islam and marry him at gunpoint, the latest in “growing trend” of attacks against Christian women in the country and other Islamic nations, Christian rights investigators told BosNewsLife Thursday, March 5.

U.S.-based International Christian Concern (ICC) identified the girl as Rida Ilyas, a sixth-grade student living in a small Christian neighborhood in the city of Faisalabad, in Punjab province.

ICC said it learned that a Muslim man, identified as Muhammad Shahid, “accosted her at gunpoint” as she was leaving her school.

“He told her to be quiet or she would be killed, and forced her to convert to Islam,” ICc told
BosNewsLife. “He wanted to marry her, and so for two days he raped her thinking that she would agree to the marriage to cover the shame of being raped.” The well-informed group said, “It is illegal in Pakistan for women to marry under the age of 16.” She was released on February 15, ICC added.

Rida was able to return to her family, who filed a criminal case against Shahid at the police station. Shahid reportedly responded by attempting to take custody of Rida until she was 16 and could legally marry him.

FAMILY RELIEVED

“Fortunately, Rida’s family was able to gather support from their local Christian leaders and lobbied police until they agreed to drop Shahid’s claim on Rida.”

Rida’s family said it is relieved, but has refused to send her back to school for fear that Shahid
would try to kidnap her again. “Thank God my daughter came back. It’s a miracle of Jesus Christ,” Rida’s mother said in published remarks. “I know of a Christian girl’s case who was kidnapped, sold to another man as a sex slave, and forced into Islam. After a year her dead body was delivered to her home,” the ICC quoted the unidentified mother as saying.

ICC sad it understood that the mother does not want to see the police or doctor’s medical
report on the rape case. “Rida’s mother is rightly cynical of receiving justice from the Pakistani authorities, who often ignore Christian complaints altogether.”

ICC said the girl’s experiences was part of “a growing trend in Muslim countries where Muslim men are given financial rewards for converting a Christian woman to Islam by forcibly marrying them.”

MORE KIDNAPPINGS

In the past year, ICC said it received five confirmed reports on Christian girls kidnapped and raped by Muslim men who were attempting to force them into Islam in Pakistan.

They included Farzana Rashid, 14, who was kidnapped by police on March 28, 2008 from her house in Lahore and was raped and charged with a false crime, ICC said. Later, on May 14, Sumaira Rafiq Masih was reportedly raped by three influential landowners when she was working in the fields near Patoki town in Punjab province,

On June 4, a Muslim man, identified as Ramzan, allegedly kidnapped two Christian sisters from Chak 285-JB, village in Punjab province. Saba Younis, 13, and Anila Younis, 10, were kidnapped several weeks later on June 26, by a Muslim man named Muhammad Arif Bajwa, investigators said.

In November, Parvisha, 18, and Sanam, 14, told a local magistrate in Gujranwala about their abduction from their home, rape, and forcible conversion to Islam, ICC said. “Muslim fanatics and sexual predators in Pakistan see Christian girls as easy prey for their lust because the government does not defend them,” said ICC Regional Manager for South and Central Asia, Samuel Wallace, “Protecting the most vulnerable in society is the government’s responsibility,
and it is to their shame that Pakistani officials fail to prosecute these heinous violations of human dignity.”

Pakistani officials have not commented on the latest reported rape case. However Pakistan’s Minister for Minorities’ Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian, has told BosNewsLife he wants to improve proection for minority Christians. He has also urged all Christian clergy men and congregations “to earnestly pray for the abolition of the black Blasphemy Laws of the country,” which he says have been misuded to persecute Christians.  (With reporting by BosNewsLife’s Jawad Mazhar in Pakistan and Stefan J. Bos.)

1 COMMENT

  1. As long as the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, they will be for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens. This is the case in:
    United States — Muslim 0.6%
    Australia — Muslim 1.5%
    Canada — Muslim 1.9%
    China — Muslim 1.8%
    Italy — Muslim 1.5%
    Norway — Muslim 1.8%
    At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and
    among street gangs. This is happening in:
    Denmark — Muslim 2%
    Germany — Muslim 3.7%
    United Kingdom — Muslim 2.7%
    Spain — Muslim 4%
    Thailand — Muslim 4.6%
    From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to
    their percentage of the population. For example, they will push for the
    introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby
    securing food preparation jobs for Muslims.
    They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply.
    This is occurring in:
    France — Muslim 8%
    Philippines — Muslim 5%
    Sweden — Muslim 5%
    Switzerland — Muslim 4.3%
    The Netherlands — Muslim 5.5%
    Trinidad & Tobago — Muslim 5.8%
    At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow
    them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under Sharia, the Islamic
    Law. The ultimate goal of Islamists is to establish Sharia law over the
    entire world.
    When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase
    lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions. In Paris ,
    we are already seeing car-burnings.
    Any non-Muslim action offends Islam, and results in uprisings and
    threats, such as in Amsterdam , with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and
    films about Islam. Such tensions are seen daily, particularly in Muslim
    sections, in:
    Guyana — Muslim 10%
    India — Muslim 13.4%
    Israel — Muslim 16%
    Kenya — Muslim 10%
    Russia — Muslim 15%
    After reaching 20% , nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, such as in:
    Ethiopia — Muslim 32.8%
    At 40% , nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare, such as in:
    Bosnia — Muslim 40%
    Chad — Muslim 53.1%
    Lebanon — Muslim 59.7%
    From 60% , nations experience unfettered persecution of non-believers
    of all other religions (including non-conforming Muslims), sporadic
    ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and Jizya,
    the tax placed on infidels, such as in:
    Albania — Muslim 70%
    Malaysia — Muslim 60.4%
    Qatar — Muslim 77.5%
    Sudan — Muslim 70%*
    After 80% , expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some State-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide, as these nations drive out the infidels, and move toward 100% Muslim, such as has been experienced and in some ways is on-going in:
    Bangladesh — Muslim 83%
    Egypt — Muslim 90%
    Gaza — Muslim 98.7%
    Indonesia — Muslim 86.1%
    Iran — Muslim 98%
    Iraq — Muslim 97%
    Jordan — Muslim 92%
    Morocco — Muslim 98.7%
    Pakistan — Muslim 97%
    Palestine — Muslim 99%
    Syria — Muslim 90%
    Tajikistan — Muslim 90%
    Turkey — Muslim 99.8%
    United Arab Emirates — Muslim 96%
    100% will usher in the peace of ‘Dar-es-Salaam’ — the Islamic House of Peace. Here there’s supposed to be peace, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrasses are the only schools, and the Koran is the only word, such as in:
    Afghanistan — Muslim 100%
    Saudi Arabia — Muslim 100%
    Somalia — Muslim 100%
    Yemen — Muslim 100%
    Unfortunately, peace is never achieved, as in these 100% states the
    most radical Muslims intimidate and spew hatred, and satisfy their blood
    lust by killing less radical Muslims, for a variety of reasons.

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